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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Dec 1, 2016
December 1, 2016
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NORAD Santa Tracker 2016:
The NORAD Santa Tracker website and apps go live today! The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been tracking Santa's movements on Christmas Eve for more than 60 years, using satellites, global positioning, jet fighter reconnaissance and other state-of-the-art data collection tools. More than 15-hundred volunteers help NORAD track Santa over a 23-hour period on Christmas Eve. NBCsays the 2016 NORAD Tracks Santa website and apps also will offer a Christmas countdown, games and other activities.
Fun fact: As with many of the best holiday traditions, the tradition of NORAD tracking Santa all started with a happy accident --according to NORAD's website, On Christmas Eve in 1955 Colonel HARRY SHOUP was stationed at the NORAD Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado (then known as CONAD --the Continental Air Defense Command). A young child called wanting to know where Santa was. And then another... and another. The local newspaper had printed the wrong phone number for kids to call Santa on Christmas Eve. Colonel Shoup --who has since come to be known as the "Santa Colonel"-- had his operators find the location of Santa Claus and reported it to every child who phoned in that night. The tradition has continued every year since. (Bartha)On, off and way-off-Broadway:
The "Hamilton Mixtape" featuring today's hottest artists performing songs from the musical will be out tomorrow. To celebrate, LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA has put together a concert featuring some of those performers. It happens 1PM Eastern Time today at the Richard Rodgers Theater on Broadway, which is "Hamilton's" home. You can livestream the entire event, for free, on YouTube. (Marino)
New school teaches Millennials to... grow up:
Ever worry that your millennial child won't amount to anything? Fear not, over-understanding parents --a psychotherapist and former public school teacher are here to save the day with a new institution called (wait for it...) The Adulting School in beautiful Portland, Maine. Yep, RACHEL WEINSTEIN and KATIE BRUNELLE are teaching several classes to young adults born from the early 80's to mid-90's about topics people "really need to learn" but aren't taught unless their parents did the job.
The debut summit took place in mid-November with a number of workshops on money management, personal relationships, communication, career development and how to make dinner from what you have in the refrigerator!
Don't worry if you're not an East Coast resident --The Adulting School hopes to branch out to other cities and is already offering online classes. (Lee)Bad luck:
Earworms can apparently cause violence!
Captain MARK HERB of the Forest Grove Police Department in Oregon reports that a man and woman got into a verbal altercation when he wouldn't stop whistling "Closing Time" by SEMISONIC near the end of her driveway. She called police on the "jackass guy" who told the man to move on and don't linger and whistle the song in various spots. (Myers) -
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